Coming up on minting my first insane artifact. Kind of split between alloy value and time warp but I'm open to other suggestions.

That depends on your play style. If you are not going to super ascend several times, time warp would be the clear better choice since it will speed up your artifact accumulation.

I picked alloy values for my first and I love it. After super ascending it allows me to be able to focus nearly exclusively on ramping up additional mercs before pivoting to money related advancements. I didn't want to start over with less than a legendary alloy values and didn't want to wait for my second artifact to be legendary before I did my first super ascension.

I chose insane Time Warp. MWL chose insane Alloy Value.

I did my first super-ascension with an insane Time Warp an a rare Alloy Value.

I don't think it makes a big difference. MWL seems to be slightly ahead of me, but I'm not sure how much is due to the artifact and how much is due to other factors.

MWL's first super-ascension: ???
My first super-ascension: 28th Dec

MWL's second super-ascension: 23rd Feb
My second super-ascension: 7th Mar

MWL's third super-ascension: 7th Apr
My third super-ascension: 15th Apr

Edited 5/3/2022 05:37:25

So AV and TW seems to be the way to go.

Suppose I wanted to take a 3rd, would AC(ache)B be a good one?

@Math
My first super ascension was also Dec 28.

@JK
A good artifact that adds armies is probably the best 3rd choice to pair with those to two. I picked an Army Cache Boost as my 3rd. If you like active artifacts triple or quadruple strike would be good. JZ has an insane army camp boost that helps a ton in the first part of a super accension. They are all good options.